Well hello there, July!
After the long, drawn out months of late winter to spring, we are at last in summer; the season of combined growth and bounty. This month, we have been graced by the arrival of some delicious items, both cultivated and wild. Including the arrival of our new barn kittens!
This time of year it seems everywhere you look around the farm, there is food: wild black raspberries, bees buzzing around different types of wild edible flowers and hurrying back to their hives to make honey; our fields, suddenly bursting with varieties of summer squash, zinnias and sunflowers, cucumbers and eggplant, even a sighting of the first apples of the year. And saving my favorite for last, the blueberries.
Ah - the blueberries! After a rough spring start this year, the blueberries have been a site for sore eyes. They are big, juicy, and flavorful this year. Be it from a CSA share you have with us, visiting our blueberry upick in Benton Harbor, or stoping by our farm market stand on Sundays in Logan Square, Chicago, we hope you enjoy blueberry season with us this year!
I also wanted to highlight a new item you may see in the farm stand store or in the extras section of your CSA box builder: yogurt and goat cheese! In an attempt to consolidate some of your food shopping, we have started working with a local creamery, just north of the farm called Mattawan Creamery. Their two products available at this time are their Mediterranean Greek style yogurt, made from the milk of a local dairy farm Moonique, and their goat cheese made from the creamery’s very own goats who live on their surrounding farm land. Both business are family owned, and share a similar food philosophy as we do; both businesses are linked for your investigatory needs. Both products are also unreal and coincidentally go very well with blueberries.
Thats all from me for now; off to a new day of harvest and weeding, and enjoying the summer sun.
Your organic farmers,
Sydney, Tom, Gonsalo + The Earth First Farms Crew
